Innovation Ecosystems In Engineering Education: From Local Experiences To A Vision Of The Future

Innovation is at the heart of new products and services. Industry increasingly demands that graduating engineering students have experience that goes beyond technical proficiency. Universities are under pressure to prepare students to enter a world where innovation is an integral part of daily activities, and faculty face challenges in how to integrate innovation training/goals into their curriculum. These challenges include how to reproduce the complexity of real startup companies in the classroom environment. This panel brings together professors from different countries and universities who have developed creative solutions to the problem. The panel will analyze the variables around innovation training. Cases about innovation teaching in Brazilian and USA universities will explore the importance of factors such as: student interest; a professor\u27s qualifications and experience; innovation infrastructure; and university culture. The diverse scenarios chosen for teaching innovation among the panelists include: experiential education, working with startups, Rio de Janeiro slums, Fab Labs, and other approaches, which both motivate and challenge students. The panel will discuss convergent and divergent aspects of teaching the next generation of engineers, which will lead to creating a vision for the future of innovation in engineering education